Battle of Tarawa order of battle
On 10 November 1943, men of the United States Marine Corps invaded the island of Betio, located at the southwest corner of Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands chain in the Central Pacific. This invasion, known as Operation Galvanic, was a phase of the Pacific Theatre of World War II.
The landings on Betio were the Americans' third amphibious operation of the Pacific War, after Guadalcanal Island and Cape Torokina on Bougainville Island, but the first in which the Japanese vigorously resisted the landings on the beaches, pinning the Marines down with machine-gun and mortar fire. Worse, American planners at Pearl Harbor had grievously misjudged the timing of high tide at Betio, leaving the landing craft stranded on the shallow coral reefs where the Marines were slaughtered.
The island was declared secure after three days. Given the small size of Betio, planners had expected it to take one.
Command structure
Naval
The roles of Commander in Chief, Pacific Ocean Areas and Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet, were both exercised by Admiral Chester W. Nimitz from his headquarters at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.Since the Gilberts and Marshalls lie in the Central Pacific, their capture was the responsibility of the U.S. Fifth Fleet, led by Vice Admiral Raymond A. Spruance from aboard his flagship, heavy cruiser Indianapolis.
The ships and troops of Operations Galvanic and Kourbash were under direct operational command of Rear Admiral Richmond Kelly Turner aboard old battleship Pennsylvania.
Ground troops
V Amphibious CorpsMajor General Holland M. "Howlin' Mad" Smith
Both Admiral Turner and General Holland Smith sailed with the Northern Attack Force even though it was obvious that Tarawa would be the scene of the main ground action. If the Japanese mounted a counterattack, it was most likely to come from the Marshalls since the closest Japanese bases to the Gilberts were located there. Nimitz and Spruance wanted the two highest-ranking officers to sail with the forces that would be the first to encounter any such enemy response. Unbeknownst to the Americans, the Japanese had stripped almost all their naval and air assets from the Marshalls in an attempt to resist the Allied effort in the Central Solomons. Thus, no counterattack materialized.
American
Ground forces – Tarawa
2nd Marine DivisionMajor General '''Julian C. Smith'''
Japanese
Gilbert Islands defense forcesRear Admiral Keiji Shibazaki
Approx. 5,000 total men under arms